Windows Azure AppFabric Caching Service Released!

Recently, at the MIX conference we announced the release of a new version of the Access Control service and the upcoming release of the Caching service.

Today we are excited to announce that the Caching service has been releasedas a production service.

The Caching service is a distributed, in-memory, application cache service that accelerates the performance of Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications by allowing you to keep data in-memory and saving you the need to retrieve that data from storage or database.

We provide 6 different cache size options for you to choose from, varying from 128MB to 4GB.

In order for you to be able to start using the service and evaluate your needs we are running a promotion period in which we will not be charging for the service for billing periods prior to August 1, 2011.

If you are signed up to one of the Windows Azure Platform Offers you might be eligible to get the 128MB cache option for free for a certain period of time depending on the specific offer. You can find more details on the Windows Azure Platform Offers page.

The service is billed on a monthly basis, based on the cache size you sign up for. You can also sign up for more than one cache and use these multiple caches in order to get a total cache size that is different or bigger than the standard cache sizes we provide.

You should read the Windows Azure AppFabric FAQ on MSDN in order to understand the pricing details and the advantages you get from the Caching service compared to alternatives.

The prices of the different cache sizes are the following:

· 128 MB cache for $45.00/month

· 256 MB cache for $55.00/month

· 512 MB cache for $75.00/month

· 1 GB cache for $110.00month

· 2 GB cache for $180.00/month

· 4 GB cache for $325.00/month

To learn more about the Caching service please use the following resources:

Great news! As a user of the Azure AppFabric Cache CTP, will my cache namespace that I created in the labs environment be carried over to my Azure account, or will I need to create a new cache namespace in my Azure account and update my code to use it? Also, if I need to create a new cache namespace, how long will my AppFabLab Cache namespace hang around? I notice that it's still working today (thank goodness) — is there an announced date that lab cache namespaces will go away? Thank you!!